robutacion
Member
Hi everyone,
About 18 months ago I was given the opportunity to cut down a few of some large branches of this humongous Curly Gum, growing just a few meters from the highway at this property drive way, and overhanging over the road more than it should so, I got a couple of major limbs down.
This has the only Curly gum I had to work with, some logs up to 16" diameter so I cut it all up so that it would dry quick. Some of this Curly gum has already been made into pens and many other type turnings quite successfully, not without wasting lots of wood from cracks developing as it dried. In fact, one would could it, wood "tearing" apart while drying, the heavy curls in the grain, completely tear/separate the wood tissue, creating a corrugate pattern as a result.
About 6 or 8 months ago, the property owners decided to open the driveway or should I say, the property entrance from the road side, a lot wider and the humongous Curl Gum tree was now in the way and had to come down completes. I was happy that I could have the largest portions of the tree but I got my work a lot more complicated because of its proximity to the busy highway and the large branches overhanging over it.
Anyway, I got it down, without any accidents (some planning required, here...!) and I got the the but of the tree, only to realise that, and it couldn't be seen before due to the tall grass and the creeper plants growing around this tree, a large portion of the trunk/butt was actually buried 2/3 under ground, and parallel to to it.
It was strange how this tree created this 6' or so butt flat with the ground before it did shut up, obviously that didn't compromise the tree structure or stability as it was there for well over 100 years...!
This large log had to go as the ground was going to be levelled to the existent road and this large "log" was stuck 2" down into the soil and 1" up from ground level.
After some serious digging, we manage to cut as much as we could but we never got the the root. I noticed then that the wood was half rotten, that was quite a surprise as the tree looked very healthy, right to that point (trunk laying on the ground). I was also strange that the rotten wood was in pockets, quite noticeable on the chainsaw when cutting though it.
I kept these pieces under cover since and a few days ago I had the re-arrange some space for the Platypus burl so, I decided to get a big chunk out of the Curly Gum and take it to the bandsaw for some slicing. There were areas beyond salvaging but, and as I went I found some interesting areas within the slices I was cutting that did deserve some more closer attention.
The nature of the Curly Gum wood, being curly obviously, had created a interesting pattern/figure in between the dead wood and the green(ish) wood, and to bring all that up into context, I cut a few pen blanks and made a couple of samples, one with almost dead wood but still quite workable and one with some pockets/veins of the dead wood within some green(ish) wood.
I finished these 2 samples this evening so, what do you thing...???
PS: It seems that while everyone else make pens to see how the woods look like, I have as much fun making my samples out of every bit a get my hands on. I can tell you the samples collection is getting quite large...!:wink:
Cheers
George
About 18 months ago I was given the opportunity to cut down a few of some large branches of this humongous Curly Gum, growing just a few meters from the highway at this property drive way, and overhanging over the road more than it should so, I got a couple of major limbs down.
This has the only Curly gum I had to work with, some logs up to 16" diameter so I cut it all up so that it would dry quick. Some of this Curly gum has already been made into pens and many other type turnings quite successfully, not without wasting lots of wood from cracks developing as it dried. In fact, one would could it, wood "tearing" apart while drying, the heavy curls in the grain, completely tear/separate the wood tissue, creating a corrugate pattern as a result.
About 6 or 8 months ago, the property owners decided to open the driveway or should I say, the property entrance from the road side, a lot wider and the humongous Curl Gum tree was now in the way and had to come down completes. I was happy that I could have the largest portions of the tree but I got my work a lot more complicated because of its proximity to the busy highway and the large branches overhanging over it.
Anyway, I got it down, without any accidents (some planning required, here...!) and I got the the but of the tree, only to realise that, and it couldn't be seen before due to the tall grass and the creeper plants growing around this tree, a large portion of the trunk/butt was actually buried 2/3 under ground, and parallel to to it.
It was strange how this tree created this 6' or so butt flat with the ground before it did shut up, obviously that didn't compromise the tree structure or stability as it was there for well over 100 years...!
This large log had to go as the ground was going to be levelled to the existent road and this large "log" was stuck 2" down into the soil and 1" up from ground level.
After some serious digging, we manage to cut as much as we could but we never got the the root. I noticed then that the wood was half rotten, that was quite a surprise as the tree looked very healthy, right to that point (trunk laying on the ground). I was also strange that the rotten wood was in pockets, quite noticeable on the chainsaw when cutting though it.
I kept these pieces under cover since and a few days ago I had the re-arrange some space for the Platypus burl so, I decided to get a big chunk out of the Curly Gum and take it to the bandsaw for some slicing. There were areas beyond salvaging but, and as I went I found some interesting areas within the slices I was cutting that did deserve some more closer attention.
The nature of the Curly Gum wood, being curly obviously, had created a interesting pattern/figure in between the dead wood and the green(ish) wood, and to bring all that up into context, I cut a few pen blanks and made a couple of samples, one with almost dead wood but still quite workable and one with some pockets/veins of the dead wood within some green(ish) wood.
I finished these 2 samples this evening so, what do you thing...???
PS: It seems that while everyone else make pens to see how the woods look like, I have as much fun making my samples out of every bit a get my hands on. I can tell you the samples collection is getting quite large...!:wink:
Cheers
George
).
